“Imaginary Homelands” - a dance and music collaboration

February 26, 7:30pm - 8:30pm
Windward Campus, Paliku Theatre

If in fact all memory is constructed, then how do keepers of a tradition sleep soundly at night? Join artists and cultural practitioners, Kenny Endo, Norman Kaneshiro, and Yukie Shiroma as they explore the intersections between Japanese taiko, Okinawan sanshin, and modern dance--and between the old and the new. The first collaboration of its kind, it is also the first between the three artists. Musician, Derek Fujio, joins the primary artists in two performances at Palikū Theatre on February 26-27, 2022.

In his essay, “Imaginary Homelands,” Salman Rushdie describes our remembrances of homelands as like a broken mirror, with some of its fragments lost forever. Revisiting the cultural past, he writes, is more about memory and forgetting than recreating precisely what once was. Visited by ancestors from their Asian heritage and guided by traditions from distant, imagined, but vivid and personally inspiring pasts, these artists live and work in the multicultural environment of Hawai‘i, sharing a common vision of how art can respond to the challenges and possibilities posed by our urgent need for a more inclusive and interdependent world.

Artists:

Kenny Endo was the first non-Japanese national to be honored with a “natori,” a professional stage name, in the field of Japanese classical drumming. He is Artistic Director of the Taiko Center of the Pacific and tours extensively, presenting his innovative cross-cultural musical collaborations throughout the U.S. and internationally.

Norman Kaneshiro is a co-founder and the musical director of Ukwanshin Kabudan, an Okinawan performing arts organization. He is designated as a cultural preservationist of Okinawan classical music by the Okinawan Prefecture Government, and is currently an instructor of Okinawan music in the University of Hawai‘i’s Department of Music.

Yukie Shiroma, modern and Okinawan dancer, is Artistic Director of the mask and physical theatre company, Monkey Waterfall, and an instructor of Okinawan dance in the University of Hawai‘i’s Department of Theatre and Dance.

Derek Fujio, collaborating artist, is the Music Department Chair and Orchestra teacher at Kaimuki Middle School, and president of the Okinawan koto organization, Ryukyu Sokyoku Koyokai Hawaii.

Imaginary Homelands is presented by the University of Hawai‘i Outreach College and Monkey Waterfall and supported in part by the National Endowment for the Arts, Hawai‘i State Foundation on Culture and the Arts, the East-West Center Arts Program, the National Organization of Traditional Artists, and private donors. Additional supporters include the University of Hawai‘i Department of Theatre and Dance and the Taiko Center of the Pacific.

Please visit this YouTube playlist to view several trailers for this performance.

For more information, please visit http://www.outreach.hawaii.edu/events


Ticket Information
http://www.outreach.hawaii.edu/events

Event Sponsor
Outreach College Community Services, Mānoa Campus

More Information
808-956-8246, csinfo@hawaii.edu, http://www.outreach.hawaii.edu/events

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